Frequent Hourglass in Explorer
MS
especially if I highlight a file or file and right-click, or if I highlight
a file or files and press the delete button, I get an endless hourglass.
The only way I can get out of it is to CTRL-ALT-DEL to Task Manager, and
highlight Explorer, and end the process. Then I go to "File", "New Task"
(still in Task Manager), type in Explorer, Enter, and Explorer starts again.
What could be causing this problem? How can I fix it?
Thank you very much to anyone who can help with this.
DD
the PC that can cause strange symptoms.
Also download Lavasoft Ad-Aware to check for any other spyware on the
system.
" MS" <m...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:Oi4wiPp9...@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
Gerry Cornell
Make an exact note of the precise text of any error message. Minor
discrepancies can
make it harder to search for information about the error message.
You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools,
Event Viewer.
When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event
ID, Source
and Description are important.
HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp
Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you
should double click
for further information and you can copy using copy and paste.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)
A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the
error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a button
resembling two
pages. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now start your
message
(email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This will paste the
info from the
Event Viewer Error Report complete with links into the message. Make
sure this is
the first paste after exiting from Event Viewer.
In Event Viewer there is no facility to print Error Reports. A
workaround is copy and
paste the Error Report into an email, send it to yourself and print off
the copy in your
Inbox or your Sent Items folder.
--
~~~~~~
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA
Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
" MS" <m...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:Oi4wiPp9...@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
Ramesh [MVP]
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm
--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org
" MS" <m...@nospam.com> wrote in message news:Oi4wiPp9...@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
MS
Do you mean that right after I get that hourglass crash of Explorer, I
should run Event Viewer? Can programs start from the Start Menu when
Explorer is frozen? Or first close and re-start Explorer? If I did that,
would the message in Event Viewer still be there?
There are no error messages in the case I described. Just an endless
hourglass.
"Gerry Cornell" <gc...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:O6nNyVq...@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
MS
Actually, I think this did start happening when I upgraded to SP2. I had
some other conflicts and problems with SP2 as well, so I uninstalled it, and
went back to SP1. (I have updated all the security updates to SP1,
frequently check Windows Update, etc., but haven't upgraded back to SP2 yet,
waiting for more bugs to be ironed out.)
So I wonder if that act of upgrading to SP2, even though I later uninstalled
it, and regressed back to SP1, caused some change that still causes this
hourglass problem? (My other computer, also running Win XP Pro SP1, on which
I never upgraded to SP2, does not have the problem.) So I think you might
have a point.
If this has happened to many people, it is a serious problem, and Microsoft
should really try to fix it right away!
Your experiences below with Microsoft Tech Support seem comical, but
unfortunately all too typical, not just of Microsoft Tech Support, but of
Tech Support in general. Usually the rep knows less about the product than
you do, they are not knowledgeable technicians, but minimum wage (or
outsourced sub-minimum wage abroad) telephone answerers, who look up the
standard run-arounds in their database--to eliminate all start-up programs,
etc. They are trained never to admit there is something wrong with their
company's software, but only with your configuration, and you have to spend
hours uninstalling and reinstalling Windows, drivers, etc., wasting days
from your life to no avail!
Microsoft should really seriously investigate this problem, and get to the
bottom of it!
"Don Taylor" <do...@agora.rdrop.com> wrote in message
news:KPednZQL3sc...@scnresearch.com...
> New developments listed at the bottom of this, but still no fix, yet.
>
> If you have recently installed SP2 on your computer then
> there have now been over 200 people reporting very similar problems
> to what you are reporting. Some find that anything which uses
> Windows Explorer (Recycle bin, folder shortcuts, control panel,
> search, etc) all have a similar problem. Some find that right
> clicks are their major problem. Some find any click. Some find
> it crashes on open. Some find it refuses any clicks. Some claim
> they know how to fix this but I've read the tens of thousands of
> postings on SP2 and I don't think you will find any with "the fix"
> for this, at least not yet. Less than a dozen people ever reported
> finding a solution for this.
>
> But, some find it will work when you boot in safe mode.
>
> And, some find it will work when you create a new user and switch
> to that user to try it.
>
> One of those might be a temporary work-around till you get an answer.
>
> Some claim it is all spyware and viruses but I haven't seen any
> posting that confirmed this for the Windows Explorer problem. I
> carefully and repeatedly checked, no viruses or spyware and my
> windows explorer locks up every time. <<<Late breaking news, after
> hundreds of people reporting this problem, ONE person did let me
> know that trendmicro actually found a WORM_SDDROP.A virus/worm, he
> removed that and it appeared to solve his problem, so that's 10,000
> times people chanting "it's all viruses and spyware" and one correct
> diagnosis>>>
>
> Some claim it is all "bad applications" like Divx or Spy Sweeper
> being installed that is responsible for this, a very few people
> have confirmed this appeared to be the source of their problem but
> others have these installed and have no problem, most reporting the
> problem don't have these installed and still have the problem. I
> don't have either and it locks up every time. And unfortunately
> there is still no list of specific files known to cause this.
>
> Some claim it is all "ShellExtensions", little accessory gadgets
> that sort of script extra cute features. The advice for that is
> to install free ShellExView and to try (carefully) disabling these
> features one at a time, if turning one off doesn't do anything then
> turn it back on and try again. I did that with all 75 at once and
> it made no difference at all. Two people have reported that disabling
> one extension they had did appear to fix their problem.
>
> Some claim it is all "corrupted user profiles" that are the
> cause of this but I've never been able to track down a tool that
> would check a user profile to see if it was corrupted. There was
> one web page that Microsoft had which described a way of reporting
> errors found in this but this doesn't appear feasible for XP.
>
> You can try to uninstall SP2, there are various descriptions of how
> to do that, using Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs or using a
> Restore point or doing a Repair Install of Windows or reformatting
> your hard drive, each of those is a bigger hammer than the previous
> method, but a number of folks have reported having various problems
> when they try to remove SP2 or after they do so. To be fair, SP2
> probably fixes thousands of small and massive bugs in Windows XP
> and if you can get it to work it is probably a good thing to have.
>
> You can escalate to Microsoft, go to
> http://support.microsoft.com/windowsxpsp2 and give them all the
> details and clues and patterns you can find. There is no guarantee
> that their analysis or directions will be correct or even not make
> it worse. They told me I must "have some corrupted files, repair
> windows back to install state and then reinstall SP2 twice while
> in Safe mode." Before I did that someone posted the "switch user"
> workaround that let me get by temporarily. I sent email saying
> that if it worked for one user then it seemed less likely it was
> "some corrupted files" and asked if they still wanted me to blow
> windows away. They have not reponded to that in a number of days
> now. But I can imagine what it is like inside now.
>
> You can try each one of these things and see if any one of them
> helps, but don't expect a fix.
>
> <<<New Developments>>>
> I just spent another two hours in chat with Microsoft Support, he
> changed his diagnosis a dozen times, going back to things we had
> already concluded had nothing to do with this, he thought that a
> file might have been corrupted during installation and this would
> leave an error message in /windows/setuperr.log, that file is empty,
> so he thought there might be answers in /windows/setupapi.log but
> he said he was not trained to know how to interpret that file, and
> the final conclusion was that he didn't know how to fix this one
> and I was "escalated", again.
>
> So the next guy had me run msconfig, in the startup tab disable all
> items, in the service tab hide all Microsoft services and disable
> all, reboot the machine, tell it not to show or launch the config
> window... If the problem had disappeared after this was done then
> the instructions were to begin enabling these items one at a time
> until the one was found that made this fail. My Windows Explorer
> problem was unchanged and I was "escalated" again.
>
> So the next guy had me download a copy of Process Explorer and dump
> out all the dll's that are connected with Windows Explorer and mail
> them to him. Just like the situation with shell extensions, I see
> that all but a couple of these are Microsoft supplied. After he had
> seen the list he asked that I rename some of the non-Microsoft dll's
> and reboot, likely to see if they were responsible. The problem was
> still there and I've restored the original names. Now we seem to be
> back to square one and he's asking again if this happens in Safe
> mode, which we have already repeatedly covered.
>
> Now we've sent him HijackThis logs, 3 megabytes of ntuser.dat, he
> keeps claiming they DO have a process for figuring this out but
> there just isn't anything that can diagnose what the problem is and
> they just keep trying things until the problem seems to go away.
> And he asks me to send him HijackThis logs again. He admits that
> lots of people have problems with Windows Explorer and that usually
> they can figure something out but that there is no list of known
> file names/sizes/dates/version numbers that fail, there is no list
> of steps a person can follow to track this down. And they spent a
> billion bucks making Sp2 more secure and bug free! But that doesn't
> put anything in the event log for Windows Explorer failures and the
> flood of error reports send to them when people have this happens
> apparently doesn't give them any clue what the cause is either.
>
> Another week goes by before he responds... and he didn't find
> anything in the HijackThis logs this time either. And he didn't
> find anything in ntuser.dat. Now he has me back to msconfig,
> turning everything off in msconfig for selective startup and
> rebooting, with a cute little note that doing this isn't recommended
> for anyone but a pro to do. The problem is still there. As a
> bonus, his directions have now blown away my Windows activation and
> it is telling me that the computer has changed and I have to
> reactivate, even though nothing has changed in months.
>
> That didn't do solve the problem so now he concludes it must be one
> of the hardware drivers and he tells me to start disabling those
> until we find the culprit. But this is senseless, we have already
> ruled that out because switching to a freshly created new user makes
> the problem go away. He hasn't answered whether he still wants me
> to disable the drivers yet.
>
> Can you say "clueless groping, hoping for a miracle"? 3 1/2 weeks
> of playing this game with them and no sign that any progress has
> been made.
>
> So I have repeatedly told them I don't just want to randomly change
> things until we don't notice the problem anymore, I'm going to track
> down the real root cause of this one and we are going to get a fix
> for this.
>
> I hope something in this helps someone. But it appears that the
> large majority of people never get a fix for the "Windows Explorer"
> problem. If someone tells you to try something and it doesn't help
> then please make a posting so we can start accumulating what
> suggestions don't do any good. And if someone tells you something
> that does work then please report it.
MS
"DD" <dontse...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:%23C1nEap...@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Make sure that Realplayer is not installed. It takes over some functions
of
> the PC that can cause strange symptoms.
Yes, Realplayer 10 is installed. It is necessary to have it installed in
order to play Real Media on the computer, which is common on the Internet.
(Once it is installed, other media players can also play Real Media. But its
player has to be installed, to install the codecs, etc.)
I would guess that a majority of PCs have RealPlayer installed. If it caused
widespread Explorer freezes, would it be so widely used? What functions of
the PC does it take over? Any way to change that?
I did disable its (RP) auto-start service (icon in system tray), as I do
with most programs that put such an icon in the system tray without asking,
putting in an unneeded background service. I definitely do not have Real
Player background service running. The only time something from Real might
be running is when playing back Real Media.;
>
> Also download Lavasoft Ad-Aware to check for any other spyware on the
> system.
Yes, I have AdAware SE, as well as Spybot Search and Destroy, update both of
them frequently, and do scans with them frequently. Therefore, I don't think
spyware is causing the problem.
Any other ideas?
Gerry Cornell
Your message has turned up four days after the date on the message so
something else is also not right.
Unless it has been disabled in Services ( Start, Administrative Tools,
Services, Event Log ) Event Viewer maintains logs monitoring the System,
Applications and Security. The default setting for this service is
Automatic. If it is set to automatic Event Viewer logs certain events
from booting the machine to shutdown.
Windows Explorer does not control the starting of programmes, although
it is possible whilst using Windows Explorer to start a programme.
Commonly double clicking an exe file in Windows Explorer will start an
application e.g. double clicking winword.exe starts Microsoft Word.
Error / information reports are retained in the Event Log usually for
several days. The size of logs can be defined by the user. When the size
of the log reaches the limit the older reports are removed automatically
to create space for the new ones.
Whilst you will not see Error Messages in Windows Explorer whilst the
hour glass is visible you should note the time and then look in the
System section of Event Viewer for Error and Warning Reports during the
time preceding resolution of the Windows Explorer. Please note when hour
glass appears it should normally resolve itself given sufficient time.
Have you recently installed a new printer, scanner, camera or the like?
Also have you recently upgraded Windows XP to SP2? What RAM memory and
processor speed does your computer have?
--
~~~~~~
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA
Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
" MS" <m...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:O5mI19e%23EHA...@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
mykemurfy
I had the problem mentioned in the first post in this thread for months
-- probably about 4 months total, and have resolved it by accident.
I tried a million things -- everything I could find listed anywhere,
and nothing worked. Yesterday I happened to upgrade Dr. DivX to 1.0.6
(known to fix some problems for XP SP2 users) and the problem
disappeared.
It's so strange not to have to wait 20 seconds to open a file -- I had
grown so used to the delay that I'm not ready for files to open as
quickly as they do.
Hope that this is helpful to someone else too.
-Mike
--
mykemurfy
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